12th June 2004, 20:00pm NZT

OK ANOTHER Change of Plan

I've landed another contract with Liquid, just over a month back, and now on top of that I have an art test with a major studio in the US, which means any spare time I have goes into learning to model and rig, unwrapping/texturing stuff for Liquid, or getting ready to do one or the other while while fulfilling my fulltime long-term contract. Yeah, I'm pretty busy. Poor old Briar is on hold until I'm clear of the game art stuff.

30th April 2004, 17:40pm NZT

OK Change of Plan

I've opted to do a quick skin for one of the UT2004 OotB meshes, Ophelia. I'm calling her Briar after a very dear friend's daughter. I'll hopefully have her done soon, but as I just picked up another contract I'm not quite sure how soon. She's going to have team skins, and one colour variant of the default. An early screen of her can be found here.

20th April 2004, 12:30pm NZT

Kanika II Polycounted

I totally missed the advent of Kanika II's Polycount debut, but she's up there. You can check the review here...well, it's not really a review, but more of a remark. I really need to get some more community skins out there I think. I plan to finish the skin I'm doing (BADGER) for BoBo's 13 model, from Hawkprey's design next, and then tweak the mapping on and skin the milla model.

14th April 2004, 10:00am NZT

I Got Ink

I managed to get some more contract work last month, skinning stuff for a third party game for Liquid Development. That kind of rocked! I'm hoping to get more work with them in the future. I got to work with a nice AD called Dan, and I know some of their team already, via Polycount, so I felt good, and part of the team, despite the limitations of telecommuting.

I am hoping to eventually follow my career ambitions out of New Zealand at some point, so I can work onsite with experienced teams, and I feel a real need to make sure I never lose my kiwi vibe, so I got a tattoo. I based it off a Maori motif that I've loved as long as I can remember, manaia. Manaia is a sea monster of sorts, but it represents protection and safety for its wearer. As a waterbaby I like the marine theme, and as a New Zealander who loves Maori art, both modern and traditional, it felt right that I should design a chiQ-style manaia for myself. I based the deisgn off a bone carving I wear around my neck:

Those of you who like the Hades' Orphan skins might see a similarity of style between her decoration and this design. Here's a picture of the tattoo when the white ink was freshly put in (hence the slightly pinkish raw look):

I'll repost this with an updated picture when it's all healed. I had the black and grey and a little white put in earlier, and last week had more white put in. I'm really happy with it now, and am fortunate in that my tattoo motif is one I've liked for over a quarter of a century, so am unlikely to go off it! I now feel as though I carry Aotearoa with me. You can take the girl out of New Zealand, but you can't take New Zealand out of the girl ;)

6th September 2003, 11:00am NZT

I Love Comics

I've been working on stuff that can't go up on chiQ.Net, i.e. N.D.A. restricted work, so I've nothing to post at the moment. I do have work to be doing for a mod I'm working on though, so I'll post that as soon as I get to it. I've added a new Amazon Associates page to chiQ.Net. This one consists of comics that I have or wish to own, and is set up in much the same way as the DVD page, though without the IMDB links of course :).

11th April 2003, 08:00am NZT

Just...Stuff

OK, the NZ government needs to support Rally of New Zealand as staunchly as it supports our America's cup team. Rally of New Zealand, a huge cash magnet for the country, and an outstanding sporting event, both for competitors and spectators, is being completely neglected. BAD GOVERNMENT!

An American I know got all aggressive and nasty at me when I said I wasn't watching footage of the war, and ascribed all sorts of nasty pro-Saddam feelings to me. I'd just like to point out to those Americans who don't like that everyone doesn't like to watch war or doesn't feel the same way about this conflict as them, that it's never black and white, and one can be anti-war, anti-Saddam, and support the troops without feeding gleefully on the biased reporting of CNN and similarly biased institutions. To assume that a person can't have mixed feelings about something so damned contentious is childish and downright offensive. It's just so damned hard to have any respect for a person who hears you say "no comment" and responds with "Oh, so you're pro-Saddam and torture, and you want the Iraqi people oppressed". To those American friends of mine who are able to let me change the subject without ripping my character to shreds I say thank you. You make a welcome contrast to some of your contrymen.

28th February 2003, 08:00am NZT

Kanika II Reviewed & New Piece in the Pipe

Identity Crisis posted an incredibly kind review of Kanika II here. I'm kind of blown away by it, as she was the fastest community skin I've ever done. I'm very pleased with her, I must admit, and am eying NightmareFemaleB for my next OOTB model skin. I recently reviewed a skin for this mesh, and she's a lovely piece - definitely worth some attention.

I've begun work on a new skin, but this one isn't for an OOTB mesh. Paul Steed is a buddy of mine, and he's made a model, based on a character design I did a while ago, which Paul suggested should be 'me'. Apart from the breasts she's pretty bang on. Paul and my husband agreed that the breasts were pretty special and should stay, despite not actually looking at all like mine, so they're staying, but please, no emails telling me I have nice boobs when I eventually get progress shots up in my W.I.P section - they're Paul's :P

I attended a gaming event the other night at the Michael Fowler Centre here in Wellington. The industry panel was great, and the discussion interesting. I hope the rest of the world comes to realise what a mind-blowingly talented nation New Zealand is, and more gaming projects happen here. All the emphasis on our films is great, as it promotes the abilities of kiwis, but it'd be nice if the focus wasn't quite so narrow.

5th January 2003, 22:30pm NZT

Hades' Second Orphan Reviewed

H2O has gone up on Polycount, in both high and low resolution, and with bots. You can read the review here. The review is very nice and boasts some kickarse screen shots of the pack...better than anything I've taken! Enjoy.

12th November 2002, 20:30pm NZT

New Content

I've been kind of busy lately. I've completed a skin for the UT2003 female mercenary A model, called Kanika II, and I've posted a tutorial today, explaining how I made the specular shader for that skin. If people like the tutorial enough to write to me about it I shall write more.